Overwhelmed by the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children, the state of Texas relaxed its standards for the shelters that house them, easing rules governing how much space each child needs and what kind of facilities they should have.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he saw three groups of people try to illegally cross into Texas from Mexico when he traveled Monday to the border to get a closer look at the nation’simmigration crisis.

Law enforcement officers from several Texas counties have banded together to form a “Border Brotherhood” who volunteer without pay to help enforce U.S. border laws in counties where there are too few deputies to regulate the ongoing flow of illegal immigrants crossing over from Mexico.

Democratic state lawmakers questioned Tuesday what Texas will gain by committing more than $4 million a week to pump up border security amid a surge of immigrant children illegally crossing into the U.S., since all sides agree the minors pose little criminal or national security threat.

Most of the 1,000 National Guard troops headed to the Texas-Mexico border will take up observational positions and detain people only if they interfere with their mission, a top general over the deployment said Tuesday.